Hi all,
Thought I would share my experience with chasing down an electrical charging gremlin on my father-in-law's 05' LS V6, just in case anyone else is going down this path and is scratching their heads too.
Quick background: The LS started flashing the battery light for a few seconds here and there over the course of a month last December, we had no idea how old the battery was, so we replaced it, but the light still kept coming on. I then removed the alternator and had it bench tested, everything checked out OK, so I put it back in, cleaned the connectors really good and everything seemed fine for about a month. Fast-forward another month, the light came back on, and this time pretty much stayed on, so I ended up replacing the 3-wire plug, no luck, then the alternator/starter wire, no luck... at this point I figured it must be something in the alternator. To test my theory, I used a wooden yardstick while the engine was running, along with my torque app/bluetooth obd connector to monitor voltage, and low and behold, when I put pressure on the connector, the voltage would go to 14.1~, and when I took it off, it would drop to about 10-11. So at this point, I knew it was the connection on the alternator-side, not the wiring side.
So off with the alternator again, I take off the back cover, and there's the problem, the solder point between the connector and the brush housing was completely separated! so, I re-soldered the connection, put everything back on, and bam, no more charging problems.
Here's a link to a photo I took after I had soldered it back:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bhNNAx9FzmWyeVwq8
Anyways, long story short - if you're having charging issues, take the alternator off, have it bench tested (Advance Auto Parts does this for free), and check the soldered connection of the receiving plug to see if it's separated or not.
Thought I would share my experience with chasing down an electrical charging gremlin on my father-in-law's 05' LS V6, just in case anyone else is going down this path and is scratching their heads too.
Quick background: The LS started flashing the battery light for a few seconds here and there over the course of a month last December, we had no idea how old the battery was, so we replaced it, but the light still kept coming on. I then removed the alternator and had it bench tested, everything checked out OK, so I put it back in, cleaned the connectors really good and everything seemed fine for about a month. Fast-forward another month, the light came back on, and this time pretty much stayed on, so I ended up replacing the 3-wire plug, no luck, then the alternator/starter wire, no luck... at this point I figured it must be something in the alternator. To test my theory, I used a wooden yardstick while the engine was running, along with my torque app/bluetooth obd connector to monitor voltage, and low and behold, when I put pressure on the connector, the voltage would go to 14.1~, and when I took it off, it would drop to about 10-11. So at this point, I knew it was the connection on the alternator-side, not the wiring side.
So off with the alternator again, I take off the back cover, and there's the problem, the solder point between the connector and the brush housing was completely separated! so, I re-soldered the connection, put everything back on, and bam, no more charging problems.
Here's a link to a photo I took after I had soldered it back:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bhNNAx9FzmWyeVwq8
Anyways, long story short - if you're having charging issues, take the alternator off, have it bench tested (Advance Auto Parts does this for free), and check the soldered connection of the receiving plug to see if it's separated or not.